License to be responsible

January 26, 2013 - 2:00 AM

Word that gun sales and license requests have skyrocketed across the Cape merely mirrors what is taking place throughout the country. Sadly, the reaction is hardly unprecedented. Any time there has been talk about gun restrictions of any type, the interest in firearms has surged.

In all likelihood, there are several factors at work here.

First, people who have been on the fence as to whether they want to purchase a firearm may feel compelled to accelerate their decision-making process, thinking that if they hesitate they may not be able to purchase one if tighter restrictions are proposed and enacted.

This mindset is somewhat flawed inasmuch as the only weapons that are being seriously considered for an outright ban are assault weapons, specifically those with large-capacity capabilities. These are hardly the firearms of choice when it comes to average citizens looking for protection, or the average hunter looking for a shotgun or rifle.

Gun rights advocates sometimes suggest that if this ban, or any ban for that matter, were to go into effect, it would only be the first of many dominoes falling, with weapon after weapon disappearing from public accessibility. Drawing this argument out to its own illogical conclusion, the suggestion is that many or all private weapons will eventually be outlawed.

This tired old canard has been trumped out so many times during the past few years that it would almost be as comical as Chicken Little's "the sky is falling" routine, if the reality were not so deadly serious. The fact is that the single modern government ban on firearms, which was on assault weapons, expired in 2004 when Congress failed to renew it.

That particular ban did not lead to some sort of widespread police state, with law-abiding citizens having guns pulled from their hands. In fact, the ban obviously did not have enough staying power to sustain even itself, much less act as a template for future restrictions of any sort.

There is, however, a positive element to be found in the recent upsurge of interest in licenses: nearly every person who applies for a license has acquired his or her weapon legally, and is willing to go through the due process to make it official, including a background check. Further, it is worth noting that local law enforcement officials report that part of the current surge is made up of people who have already been licensed. Some of them are merely getting a jump on their renewals, which are legally required every six years.

There are also a fair number of people who have allowed their licenses to lapse, and who perhaps believe that now might be a particularly bad time to be found with an unlicensed gun in their possession, not that there is ever a good time for such behavior.

This, then, may be the one area where most gun control advocates and gun rights advocates can find agreement: there are far too many unlicensed, illegal weapons in our communities. Law enforcement must be empowered to take action so that those who are obtaining and using such weapons can be arrested and prosecuted. This is a common sense issue, and one that all concerned citizens should be able to support, regardless of their views on the Second Amendment.

This might be a narrow patch of common ground in the gun control debate, but it may represent a good place to begin to take a stand.